Outputs to which this applies are subject to open access deposit, discovery and access requirements. (Para 16) It is anticipated that the "discovery" requirement will be met at the institutional and technological level.

"Credit will be given" to institutions exceeding the letter of this policy in a future "research environment" component. (Para 15)

"Non-compliant outputs will be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed in the REF." (Para 42)

Deposit Requirements

Authors MUST:

upload the "accepted and final peer-reviewed text" to "an institutional repository, a repository service shared between multiple institutions, or a subject repository such as arXiv". (Paras 17, 19)

do so "as soon after the point of [firm (Para 19)] acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after this date". (Para 18)

Allowable exceptions:

the author did not work at an HEI at time of acceptance.

"it would be unlawful to deposit, or request the deposit of, the output".

"depositing the output would present a security risk". (Para 36)

Authors MAY:

upload a subsequent version as a supplement or replacement if the publisher allows it. (Para 19) If a replacement, it must also fulfil the access requirement (Para 33).

Access Requirements

Authors MUST:

allow others "search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge". (Para 25)